Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/335

 NEW HAMPSHIRE MEN IN LOWELL. 305

at Livingston, Me., and located in Lowell nearly forty years ago. In former years he was regarded as a dangerous antagonist at the bar, but has devoted himself principally to literary work for a long time past.

Other Lowell lawyers, native of New Hampshire, are L. E. Shepard, born in Raymond in 1S20, who graduated at Dartmouth in 1851, taught school several years, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Lowell in 1S62 ; and J. C. Kimball, a native of Plainfield, who graduated at Oberliu in 1853, studied law with Hon. George \V. Morrison, of Manchester, was some time principal of the Nashua High School, and has been in practice in Lowell over twenty years.

In referring to New Hampshire lawyers in Lowell, the venerable judge of the Police Court — Hon. Nathan Crosby — is not to be overlooked. He is a member of the noted Crosby family, of Sandwich, and a brother of Drs. Dixi, Josiah, and other celebrated physicians. He was born February 12, 1798, and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1820, Hon. George W. Nesmith, of Franklin, being among his classmates. He studied law with Stephen Moody at Gilmanton, and Asa Freeman at Dover, and was admitted to the bar in the latter city in 1823. He practiced his profession at Gilmanton. at Amesbury, Mass., and in Boston, and located in Lowell in 1843, where he has served con- tinuously as Police Judge for nearly forty years. Probably no man in the country has had a longer experience at the head of a single judicial tribunal, and certainly no one has so administered justice as to gain and retain in larger degree the confidence and respect of the public. He has long been identified with the material interests of the city of his residence in various directions, and in his capacity as an attorney negotiated for the manufacturing corpora- tions of Lowell and Lawrence the control of the lake waters of this State, which they hold at the present time. Although now in his eighty-fifth year Judge Crosby retains his intellectual vigor and his bodily powers in a remarka- ble degree, regularly attends the daily sessions of his court, and exhibits a lively interest in current events and all movements and measures affecting the public welfare.

Nor should reference be omitted, in this connection, to the venerable and honorable John A. Knowles, a native of our town of Pembroke, born April 25, 1800. Mr. Knowles fitted for Dartmouth College and entered that institution, but was prevented by ill health from completing the course. He subsequently taught school in various towns in this State; but went to Lowell in 1828, where he studied law in the office of Elisha Glidden, was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice half a century ago. He was City Solicitor in 1S41. a Re])resentative in the Legislature in 1834, 1843, and ^^44 ; ^^^^ State Senator in 1847. He was president of the Appleton Bank for nearly thirty years previous to 1876, when he resigned, and was for a long time treasurer of the Lovvell & Lawrence Railroad. He served upon the school committee for many years, and was a member of the board when Hon. Moody CJurrier, now of Manchester, was principal of the High School, some forty years ago.

Reference to school aff'airs suggests the fact that the first grammar school teacher in Lowell, under the union system, who had previously been many years engaged in teaching there, is still livmg in that city at the age of eighty years, and in the full enjoyment of physical and intellectual activity, — Mr. Joshua Merrill, who is also a son of this State, born in Milford, March 17, 1802. He commenced teaching m Lovvell in November, 1827, having walked there from Milford to engage a school, which he took for thirteen weeks at eighty dollars for the term, paying his board therefrom. At this time Warren Colburn, whose lessons in intellectual arithmetic were familiar to pupils in the public schools a generation or two since, was a member of the school committee in Lowell. Mr. Merrill continued actively engaged in teaching for a period of

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